This lemon scone loaf is a lemon scone recipe baked as a loaf bread/dessert with lemon extract, zest, juice and glaze. Perfect for all lemon lovers.
Last year I made a Blueberry Scone Loaf and I loved how wonderfully it turned out. I make regular scones all the time, but I wanted to get a little creative with it and what better way to enjoy a scone – like bread. Obviously I’m a bread lover as well so for me it was very much like combining two of my great loves.
However, lemon is one of my most favorite flavors of things. Lemon curd goes on most of my scones or on toast or ice cream, lemon cheesecake, lemon muffins, I love them all. I had a lemon tree in my backyard growing up in Arizona and OH how I wish I had that now. I don’t know why I never made a lemon scones recipe before, but I’m starting off this new year right with this lemon scone loaf and it’s perfect.
Baking Tips & Notes
If you have never made scones before, even though this lemon scone loaf isn’t completely the same process as traditional scones I’d check out my Best Vanilla Cream Scones post, as it has a bunch of helpful tips for scone baking. As much as following a recipe’s ingredients is important, technique sometimes can make or elevate your results.
I baked this loaf in an 8.5×4.5 inch loaf pan. Baking this in a 9×5 or 8×4 pan will slightly change the bake time. A smaller pan will result in a longer bake time and a bigger pan will shorten the bake time.
In order to get peak lemon flavor out of this lemon scone loaf, I highly recommend topping it with the lemon glaze. It’s really simple to whisk together and helps elevate both lemon and sweetness. If you do not want to add the glaze I’d recommend topping the loaf with demerara or turbinado sugar, or even making some additional lemon sugar and topping it with that. I personally do not like the scones themselves to be overly sweet, to be able to taste all the flavors. The lemon glaze will help sweeten it up without feeling like you’re eating sugary cake.
I also use lemon extract in the recipe. I have used and sometimes will use lemon oil in recipes which is a MUCH more concentrated lemon flavor. If you are using lemon oil, make sure to reduce the amount from 1 tsp, probably by about half to avoid biting into this and getting pucker faced.
Lemon Scone Loaf Key Ingredients
- Lemon – While this lemon scone loaf recipe does use lemon extract, I fully believe the lemon itself does a lot of the heavy lifting. Creating the lemon sugar is a really great way to infuse anything with a strong lemony flavor, plus we use the juice in both the bake and the glaze. I used regular lemon, however Meyer lemons would also be great if you wanted the lemon flavor a little sweeter and less tart.
- Butter – Butter is one of the star players in any of my scone recipes. Using good butter will always help elevate the flavors but any unsalted butter will work.
- Cream – This is a cream scone recipe so heavy cream is necessary. If it’s available I always buy really good local heavy cream. The flavor is often much better than traditional stuff at the grocery store. Like store brand butter, there’s nothing wrong with using traditional cream but when you taste the difference you see what the fuss is about.
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Ingredients
- 1 large Lemon for zest and lemon juice
- 300 g AP Flour 2½ cups
- 67 g Granulated sugar ⅓ cup
- ¾ tsp Sea salt
- ½ tsp Baking soda
- 2 tsp Baking powder
- 113 g Unsalted butter cold, ½ cup
- 210 g Heavy cream ¾ cup + 2 tbsp
- 1 tsp Lemon extract
- ¼ tsp Vanilla extract
- 1 tsp Lemon juice
- 1 large Egg cold, beaten
Glaze
- 125 g Powdered sugar 1 cup
- 2 tbsp Fresh lemon juice
- ¼ tsp Vanilla
- pinch Sea salt
Instructions
- Place your butter in the freezer for about 20 minutes before you are ready to start.
- Line an 8.5×4.5" loaf pan with parchment paper. Set aside. Preheat your oven to 375°F
- In a medium to large bowl, weigh out your sugar and then zest your lemon into the sugar.
- Using your fingers, rub the sugar and lemon zest together. As you do this, the oils in the zest will be released into the sugar and create a yellow sandy mixture.
- Add your flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda into the sugar mixture and mix well.
- Remove your butter from the freezer and drop it into your dry ingredients to lightly coat the butter. This makes it easier to handle while grating. Using a coarse grater, grate into the flour mixture. I find it helpful to grate half, mix throughout dry ingredients and then grate the second half, and mix in.
- Create a well in the center of the bowl and pour your heavy cream, beaten egg, lemon extract, lemon juice and vanilla into it.
- Using a fork or a rubber spatula, push the sides into the wet ingredients and begin to bring your dough together.
- The dough can be sort of in large clumps, I take that and place it into the loaf pan, gently pressing the pieces into each other to fill the spaces evenly.
- When your oven is ready, remove your loaf pan from the freezer. If you do not plan to make the glaze, I recommend lightly brushing the top of your loaf with cream and sprinkling with demerara or turbinado sugar for a little extra sweetness and texture.
- Bake your loaf on the center rack of your oven for about 45-50 minutes. The internal temperature in the center when removed should read about 190°F and the top of the loaf should have a golden crust.
- Remove your loaf from the pan and place on a wire cooling rack to cool.
- After loaf has cooled for about 30 minutes, prepare your glaze.
- In a small bowl, add powdered sugar, lemon juice, vanilla and pinch of salt. Whisk together. Glaze will be thick but ribbon off spoon or whisk easily.
- Pour or drizzle glaze over loaf. Slice and enjoy! Store scone loaf in an airtight container for 2-3 days.
